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Monday, January 28, 2013

Accessorizing Built-in Shelves and Bookcases

Happy Monday! Hope you all had a great weekend. Hubs and I both have the flu, so we pretty much hit the snooze button and slept through the entire weekend. One of my 2013 decor projects is to finish accessorizing the basement built-in shelves based on the Ikea Billy bookcase hack. While there are tons of articles on how to carry out such a task, at the end of the day, your home and design should look like you. For me, it's about functional, showcasing accessories that reflect my interests and hobbies, and simplicity. Some designers suggest that you remove all items from the shelves and then decide how much or little you really want to have on each shelf. For me it doesn't work like that, at least not right now. I already have another two huge wall-to-wall bookcases in my house in, so for this one it's more about taking my time and collecting items that can go on to the shelves. I suppose I can relocate some of the interior design books here - but the downside is that I might have to run through three bookcases to find a book in the future. Another rule of thumb is to start with the centre. This is the spot where your eyes usually land first. This huge piece (50x50cm) of sea fan from a vintage store can undoubtedly anchor the main focal point of the shelves.

To fill up a 15-feet long built-in bookcase can be a pretty daunting task, especially that I pretty much started from scratch. I find to Group Like With Like makes it so much easier: grouping items by theme, colour, shape, texture or material. When you amalgamate like things together, they make a much bigger impact. For me, I have a nautical coral decor theme throughout the shelves.

I also want it to be functional: I want all my ever-growing travel book and favourite show collections to go on these shelves. Therefore, I still have some empty shelf space which allows me to add items over time.

My ultimate goal is to achieve a look like this: a perfectly accessorized bookcase on some many levels. I will be doing another checkpoint hopefully in the summer to show you what my bookcase looks like then.

If you are interested in learning more about how to accessorize a built-in bookcase, you can read more here, here and here.

About Me

I started AM Dolce Vita to document the renovation and redesign of our custom built home. A software sales executive by profession, a design blogger by hobby, a self-confessed serial decorator, an avid traveler, photographer and gardener, a daughter and a wife, don't we all wear multiple hats? I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I do. If you have any question please do not hesitate to reach me at amdolcevita88 (at) gmail (dot) com.